Following yesterday’s claim that Apple’s next iPhone could be “delayed” until October due to a shortage of next-gen LTE chips, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, speaking to Bloomberg (via 9to5Mac), has attempted to explain the reasons for the delay, claiming that Apple’s next iPhone will be the “mother of all upgrades.”
We think one of the big features of the iPhone 5 is going to be LTE […] When iPhone 4S came out it was obviously the same form factor. This is going to be a big hardware upgrade, so just think of those as kind of alternating year to year. So this is going to be the year of the hardware. It’s going to be the mother of all upgrades. There will be lines around shopping malls to get this, but it sounds like it’s going to be a little later than some had hoped.
While Munster’s claims do make a lot of sense, Munster does have a mixed track record when it comes to claims about Apple, so it’s worth exercising some caution. Still, the expectation that the next iPhone will me a major hardware upgrade seems likely, whenever it ends up being released.
You can hear Munster’s comments for yourself in the below clip (Flash only, unfortunately!)
